MacKinnon: Top Canadian cyclists to compete in Tour of Alberta

Preliminary rosters announced for six-stage race Sept. 2-7

Tour of Alberta CEO Duane Vienneau talks at a news conference Tuesday at City Hall for the six-day international professional cycling race that runs Sept. 2-7.

Photograph by: Ed Kaiser, Edmonton Journal

EDMONTON - Canada’s Ryder Hesjedal is the most recognizable name competing in this year’s Tour of Alberta, but he’s hardly the only top pro cyclist among the 120 riders that organizers have recruited to take part in the event.

In fact, organizers believe the 15-team race that runs from Sept. 2-7 will include the strongest competitive field in the Tour’s three-year history.

The Canadian riders that organizers have pencilled into their provisional roster include Langley, B.C.’s Svein Tuft, a three-time Canadian time trial champion and silver medallist at the 2008 world championships, also in the time trial. Tuft rides for the powerful Orica-GreenEdge Cycling team.

The list includes two former Canadian road race champions in Zach Bell, a native of Watson Lake, B.C., and Ryan Roth of Kitchener, Ont. Bell rides for Team SmartStop while Roth is with Silber Pro Cycling.

Team Optum, a U.S.-based outfit, includes a cluster of Canadians led by Ryan Anderson of Spruce Grove; Ottawa’s Michael Woods, a podium finisher at the recent Tour of Utah; William Routley of Belleville, Ont.; and Montrealer Guillaume Boivin, the current Canadian road race champion.

This year’s Tour, which opens with a team trial in Grande Prairie on Sept. 2 and finishes with a punishing circuit race through downtown Edmonton, is more varied than the two previous editions. Since the race is seen by many teams as a prelude to the world road cycling championships at Richmond, Va., next month, the Tour being a more complete cycling test this go-round may be an enticement, not a disincentive, to teams looking to be sharp for the worlds.

It certainly ramps up the degree of difficulty of this year’s Tour, which for the first time includes two mountain stages.

“One of the factors the riders are looking at is that when they’ve got the mountains done, you’ve got a 200-kilometre stage (Edson to Spruce Grove),” said Brian Jolley, Tour of Alberta chairman.

That stage unfolds over a surface sometimes euphemistically known as “Canadian pave,” which, put plainly, is broken asphalt. So that stage, which follows a pair of thigh-burning climbs into the Rockies, including one up to the Marmot Basin ski area, will be as bone-rattling as it is long.

“You know what? The guys, the real pros, don’t complain,” said Jolly, a former pro cyclist. “I’ve ridden a lot worse in Europe when I raced in Europe. It’s part of the game and you adapt to it.”

A six-stage event that includes a 20-km time trial to start, two tough mountain climbs, that bumpy journey along the Canadian pave, and a nasty circuit race to finish means, for Jolly, “you’re going to have a special person win this, (someone) who can handle all that.”

Hesjedal is the most obvious rider who has the all-around ability and racing history to pull it off. The 34-year-old Victoria native won the 2012 Giro d’Italia and finished fifth overall in that race this year.

“Hesjedal’s got the experience to do well,” Jolly said. “He’s ridden in all these conditions.

“He’s a brilliant mountain climber, but there’ll be a big fight to the bitter end on this one.”

Certainly, that’s always what organizers hope for.

Another talent to keep an eye on is Australian rider Michael Matthews, also an Orica-Greenedge competitor. So far in 2015, Matthews, 24, has won the Tour of Switzerland, the Pais Vasco and Paris-Nice races, as well as two stages of the Giro d’Italia.

With Tuft, Matthews and Adam Yates, winner of the San Sebastian World Tour race in Spain, Orica-Greenedge is one powerful team. Tuft, with his renowned endurance, Jolly suggested, could be the engine that propels Orica-Greenedge to a top finish in the Tour-opening team time trial.

Tour of Alberta CEO Duane Vienneau talks at a news conference Tuesday at City Hall for the six-day international professional cycling race that runs Sept. 2-7.

Photograph by: Ed Kaiser, Edmonton Journal

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